Contract Insights

2026 will see the continuation of recent trends pertaining to increased regulatory scrutiny and elevated risk from missed obligations. According to Gartner, legal and compliance department investment in governance, risk, and compliance tools will increase 50% by 2026¹ - and it's clear to see why! Modern CLM software - such as CobbleStone Contract Insight^® - helps automate obligation oversight, reduce risk, and get a firm grasp on compliance. Here's how.

Understanding the contract lifecycle is essential for legal, procurement, and contract management teams aiming to streamline operations. This guide explores the eight key stages of the contract lifecycle and how contract lifecycle management (CLM) software can optimize each phase for better compliance, efficiency, and collaboration. 

A healthy contract management process should constantly be adapting to technological advancements.  As contract volume and contract complexity begin to grow, organizations must embrace digital transformation to be furnished with the right tools to streamline the contract management process.  Such innovative CLM tools can be found within a trusted contract management software system. Read on to learn more.

Manual renewal methods with spreadsheets, emails, emailed reminders, and wet signatures may suffice for organizations with low contract volume and complexity. 

Unfortunately, organizations managing thousands of contracts of ranging types can face challenges. Moreover, such an outdated contract renewal strategy can increase the risk that a contract expires with a desired renewal having been overlooked. It's time to take control of how you manage contract renewals. Read on to learn how to leverage renewal process best practices with contract management software.

Unfulfilled contract obligations can create a post-award contract management nightmare that can escalate to stressful legal action – such as issuing a cease and desist or suing your counterparty. 

So, how can you avoid this? 

By clearly defining the obligation of contracts between you and your counterparty and leveraging contract management software tools to receive timely alerts for each obligation of contracts, you can retain contract obligation accountability instead of meddling with unnecessary disputes.

Oh no!  It happened: contract lifecycle process failure.  Something went wrong during contract lifecycle management - resulting in contract failure.  But fear not; as a contract management professional, you are a worthy investigator.  It is time to put on your detective hat, grab a notepad, and piece together the clues as to why your contract lifecycle process failed.  You can also inspect how this tragedy could have been avoided with contract management software.  Let the investigation begin!

Contract authoring is essential.  An inefficient process can hinder organizations and result in error-prone contracts with missing or misplaced clauses.

Additionally, overlooked key dates and milestones and a confusing process can stall the contract lifecycle.  Luckily, leading contract management software can provide intelligent authoring.  Read on to learn how to simplify and modernize the contract writing process.

Managing contracts can be challenging - especially when primarily relying on outdated tools such as spreadsheets, emails, and shared drives.  Without accountability, visibility, a clearly defined process, and actionable insights within a contract management software platform, you can find yourself confronting contract management bottlenecks.  Contract lifecycle management (CLM) requires careful planning, the right technology, a well-planned contract strategy, and robust contract lifecycle management processes.  To gain the most out of contract lifecycle management, you need to ask key questions in order to find the right answers.  Read on to discover seven key questions to consider when implementing contract lifecycle management, including key features to look for when leveraging a CLM software platform.